You know that thing when you can see a face in the clouds? Or when you can see the Man in the Moon? That thing is called pareidolia. It’s a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus being perceived as significant.

Remember the Kate Middleton jelly bean?

It’s not new – in 1978 a New Mexican woman found that she could see Jesus Christ in the burn marks of a tortilla. Thousands of people came to see it.

Carl Sagan (one of my most revered people, ever) hypothesized that we are hard-wired to see human faces. If you can spot a face in poor visibility or from a mile away, you’re likely to brace yourself for what may come next – fisticuffs or a friendly chat. Natural selection will favour those that see faces – it’s a survival technique.